Las Vegas

There is just something about Vegas. People either tend to love it or hate it. Darron and I love it....every couple of years at least. We stopped over in Vegas on our way to Texas when I was pregnant with Preston. We really enjoyed it and just over two years ago Darron TOTALLY surprised me with a 4 day trip when I was pregnant with Payton (surprised as in "get up and pack, our plane leaves in a few hours.")

Now that I'm pregnant again, we had been talking about not wanting to leave this baby out....we needed another trip to Vegas! :) Actually, we just really wanted to leave reality and parenting for a few days and spend some time together before baby number three joins our world. For us, Vegas is "close", "cheap", and fun.

So, we left the kids with Darron's family (we are forever grateful for them) and headed to Vegas for 5 days (but it actually turned in to six days since we gave up our seats and got free vouchers on the way home). Here are a few pictures from my iphone. We stayed in the Paris hotel and really enjoyed it. It's in the middle of the strip, and we were upgraded to a corner suite for free. This is towards one end of the strip looking back at our hotel (this is the day we flew in so I was pretty tired as you can see)!
On our last day, we put a $10 bill into a penny slot machine. We had been playing differnt penny slots while we where there, and had our favorites. This was a new machine we thought we'd try out while killing time before heading to the airport. We struck it rich!! Well, for penny slots anyways! We turned our $10 into $155......it was so fun!

Eating crapes at the Paris hotel.

View from our room.....we had a half view of the strip and could see the Bellagio Water show from our room.

Eating lettuce wraps at PF Changs. We had here almost every day for lunch. We LOVE PF Changs.

We had such a wonderful trip together. We tend to travel out of Alaska a couple of times a year, but it is generally to visit family....which we love. But there is something to be said for flying with no children, staying up late and sleeping in, eating when you want to without being interrupted, and not listening to a whiney two year old! :) Being parents makes you appreciate every moment of an adult only trip! It was so relaxing and a great marriage booster. And yes, we definatly missed our kids and are thankful to be home with them (most days anyways)! :)

San Diego

This is a long overdue post, but better late than never! Just after Christmas, we flew to San Diego to visit my brother and his family. My parents also met us there for a week. Unfortunately, Darron and I forgot our cameras, so these pictures are all from my iphone. We had a great visit, and LOVED warming up in the sunshine some! We took the kids to Legoland, Seaworld, and Coronado Beach. Here are some highlights from our trip....Preston and Payton admiring each others apples. I just thought they were too cute in their sunglasses looking at each other.

Preston and Darron rode the Roarin' Rapids ride. THey came out soaked, but had a great time!

Preston and Maggie on the Elmo ride....

Payton and her daddy!

I had to include this sweet picture. This is my typical Payton....two fingers from her left hand in her mouth, and rubbing the corner of her blanket!

Collecting shells at Seal beach.

Maggie and Peepaw

Preston at Legoland....it was a really cool place!

Sweet Payton learned to take her naps in her stroller because we were on the go so much. Wish I could have been snuggled in next to her! :)

While standing in line for a ride, these two starting hugging each other. It was SOOO sweet!

My sister in law took some great pictures throughout our trip and they are on a CD....somewhere. Now, if I could only remember where I put that CD......

Heavy Heart

Jenny B passed away this afternoon about 3:38 Texas time. Please continue to pray for her parents, siblings, husband, nine year old daughter, and all others impacted by her. Thank you for caring for those you don't even know.

Praise the Lord for a Heaven with no pain and the promise of seeing each other again!

Prayer Requests

My heart is heavy tonight for two differnt friends and their families. Although I have been praying for both of them since the start of their trials, it has been on my heart to post this on my blog to enlist the prayers of all of you prayer warriors out there.

Kamara Tate Cox
Kamara and I went to ACU together. We were in all of our education classes together, and she is just an incredibly sweet, happy, Christ-like woman. Kamara unexpectantly delivered a baby girl at 24 weeks this past week. So far, Baby Cox is holding her own. But as you can imagine, she has a long road to travel. Her tests have been looking positive and she seems to be a fighter. However, as of today, her platelet count is pretty low and this is a cause for concern. Kamara, and her husband Rod, have been discharged from the hospital and are now trying to balance the life of being with Baby Cox in the NICU as well as with their 20 month old daughter, Aubrey. Please be feverently praying for this family: for life, energy, encouragement, rest, wisdom, and a continued unshakable FAITH in the Lord.

Jenny Bizaillion
Jenny went to ACU while I was there. Although I didn't know her, I recognize her. Also, Darron was friends with both her, and her husband Dave. Jenny's story is a strange, and difficult one. Today marks day 16 of Jenny being in the ICU after what they thought was the flu. Jenny went to the ER after struggling with the flu for about a week. They quickly diagnosed her with pneumonia and admitted her to the hospital. It was soon found that Jenny's body had been overtaken with sepsis (basically a poison in the body) and major organs were beginning to shut down including her lungs, kidneys, and liver. The first several days the doctors were not sure Jenny would survive. However, the Lord has continually brought her through and has miraculously saved her to this point. Unfortunately, due to drugs that had to be administered to save her organs, Jenny lost all circulation to her feet and gangreen became a huge threat. Jenny had to have both legs amputated below the knees this past week. This morning, Jenny suffered two grand mal seizures followed by a more mild seizure. After doing an MRI, the doctors have now discovered that some of the sepsis has attached to an artery in her heart and has caused lesions on her brain. The family met with doctors throughout the day today and just stated that "the prognosis is not promising."
The amazing thing in all of this is that over 4000 people in over 40 states and 5 countries are praying for Jenny that they KNOW of. I believe many more are praying for her that the family is not even aware of. The family is holding as strong as possible. They have full faith that God CAN heal her and they are trying to trust in His will.
Jenny is 31 years old and has a 9 year old daughter, Malaya.
Please be in prayer for Jenny and her family. Please join us in praying for complete healing, wisdom for the doctors, her kidneys and liver to begin functioning, and all infections to leave her body. The families anthem throughout all of this is "Mighty to Save."

I know this is a heavy blog post. My heart has been so heavy for both of these families. I am asking you to join us in prayer. TO lift these beautiful ladies and their families up in prayer throughout your days. If you want internet addresses to follow their stories, let me know.

Thank you for being prayer warriors with us!